album reviews

Southern California soulman Aloe Blacc, who sang lead on Avicii's 2013 smash "Wake Me Up," will probably be enjoying some nice royalty checks for years to come – but while every college student in the hemisphere surely recognizes his voice, not nearly as many fans know his name. Blacc's major-label debut tries to change that with a set of hooky soul-pop tunes layered with folk-tinged acoustic elements. Highlights like the boisterous "Can You Do This" and an EDM-free mix of "Wa... | More »

Divergent, Hollywood's next big Hunger Games, is based on a bestselling trilogy of teen novels set in a dystopian future. The movie's soundtrack offers an image of the dystopian present, wanly blurring EDM, alt-rock and hip-hop into post-Yeezus multiplex schlock. The best songs pair an on-fire Kendrick Lamar with psychedelic tricksters Tame Impala and A$AP Rocky with droning French techno guy Gesaffelstein. Elsewhere, arty British electro-pop singer Ellie Goulding gets three tracks ... | More »

On their first indie album in more than 20 years, funk metal's chillest bros are less concerned with elbowing for radio play – they've ditched producer Bob Rock after two albums – and are more content to settle into a heavier, self-sustaining life as a reggae version of alt-metal mainstays Helmet. Fighting the push-pull of negative-vibe merchants ("They wanna play my emotions/But I'm like the ocean"), the LP bursts with joyous choruses and taut grooves imported dire... | More »

If you ever wanted to hear King Crimson tap out Mungo Jerry songs, then, boy, does Primus frontdude Les Claypool have a record for you. In Duo De Twang, the bassist pairs his familiar combat-boot Bootsy Collins moves with guitarist Brian Kehoe (an old thrash-metal pal from the Eighties). Their debut kicks a spittoon down the fine line between "weirdly hypnotic" and "profoundly irritating," with goofy covers of the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" and Alice in Chains' "Man in the Box,"... | More »

Metronomy sell mopey moods by the seashore: The British synth-poppers' last album was called The English Riviera, and now and then on their new one you even hear people splashing around. Love Letters opens with "The Upsetter," sounding like a message from some place stuck in 1992; the music starts out emaciated, but gets lusher as Joseph Mount reaches for his space-glitter falsetto. His zodiac kitsch in "I'm Aquarius" picks up steam too, and sweet Italodisco beach balls "Boy Racers"... | More »

Calle 13 have come a long way since their 2005 debut, when they were a smartass pair of twentysomethings from Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico, riding the international reggaeton boom with a club-minded mix of sex talk and political invective. With their fifth disc, frontman Residente and his halfbrother Visitante have made as ambitious a hip-hop album – if that's not too narrow a term – as any in any language. Beginning with an incantatory intro delivered by Uruguayan author Eduar... | More »